UNEASY AND SAFE

Really interesting true war stories are now a thing of the past, leaving very few of them still not adapted for the big screen.

’’Anthropoid’’ is one of those scripts that tend to look pretty much better on the paper than on the celulloid. Saga about the Czech patriots that find their way back in the occupied Prague via parachute to assassinate the notorious Reinhard Heydrich has all the elements to create a tense and memorable atmosphere, but it doesn’t succeed to do so. Instead, British flick, led by the always reliable Cillian Murphy manages to succumb the viewer to its really slow pace and claustrophobic feeling, which is not a bad thing after all. The bad thing is that the much expected climax somehow wiggles its way from us, leaving us with a nausea in the final showdown between the commandos and the Nazi.

’’Anthropoid’’ is one of those smaller scale productions that were primarily meant for television and blu-ray rather than the big screen.

ANTHROPOID – 5/10

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FARAWAY, SO CLOSE TO PERFECTION

Christopher Nolan is one of those movie people that has been close to the laureates from the very beginning of his stellar career, but somehow always failed to materialize his enormous talent.

One of the most inspiring wartime stories of all time, English evacuation of expeditionary forces from the coast of Dunkirk in 1940, was one of those scripts waiting for a diversely capable man behind the camera to take it to the stars.

And Nolan did it, creating one of the most tense war movies ever filmed, using everything he has to recreate the unique claustrophobic atmosphere through three overlapping stories (beach, air, water). He also didn’t abandon his trademark storylines intertwining masterfully leading them to the major problem of this movie.

Its ENDING.

If it weren’t for the bottom quarter of the script, we would be now talking about „Dunkirk” as the best directed war movie of this century. If it weren’t for the surreal heroism, pathetic patriotism and sudden lack of brutality, „Dunkirk” would’ve been known as a total triumph of Nolan’s supreme cinematography. Unfortunately, loss of the control over the script managed to severely diminish perfect sound, sound mixing, wide angle, handheld camera and realistic sea and sky battles, as well as some solid acting (Murphy, Whitehead, Rylance) and that is a real shame.

„Dunkirk” is one masterfully directed war story that will awe you in the first three quarters of its course.

DUNKIRK – 8/10

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GOOD, BUT NOT THAT GOOD

Few movies had a greater impact on popular and cinematic culture than the immortal love story of „Casablanca”. Hence, the expectations from it were huge and, alas, only semi fullfilled.

The story is just plain straightforward, revolving around the American expatriate (Bogart) squirming his ways around Morrocco during the Second world war. When the old love steps in (Bergmann), the cliche won't stop until the very end that is just too expected and pathetic.

However, Humphrey will set the standards for the male cool behavior on silver screen and some of the most memorable lines in the history of cinema will be delivered during the course of this spy and love story.

„Casablanca” is a good movie, but not an excellent one as the majority of ratings and reviews claim to.

CASABLANCA – 6/10

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MEL'S STILL GOT IT

Mel Gibson deviated from his star-spangled path on the turn of the centuries, but now shows some strong signs of recovery, lead by one of the most intriguing and fascinating war stories ever.

„Hacksaw ridge” will consist out of two clear parts. First one, deals with liberal and civic society aspects of the training of Desmond Doss (surprisingly solid Andrew Garfield), first pacifist US soldier in World War Two. Second one tells the true story about his exploits on top of Hacksaw ridge, one of the bloodiest battles that US Marines led with Japanese in the entire war. And it’s in that second part that all of Gibson’s gift for directing, cinematography and editing will kick in with all of its strength, creating some of the most vivid war action sequences in modern day Hollywood. Pathetic will step in as well, peaking towards the end, but the Australian just knows how to direct a patriotic and inspiring movie story.

„Hacksaw ridge” is hyper-pathetic, but memorably directed war flick.

HACKSAW RIDGE – 7/10

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BEST HOLOCAUST MOVIE EVER!

Little is known worldwide about one of the bloodiest conflicts of the 20th century, The Second Sino-Chinese war, that began in 1937 spanning all the way to 1945. During that war many fierce atrocities have been made by Japanese, amongst which the so called Nanking massacre ranks as one of the goriest.

Nanking was the capital of China and fell in to Japanese arms in 1937, resulting in thousands dead soldiers and civilians, as well as some 300.000 women raped. That’s right, 300 THOUSAND.

Young Chuan Lu directs his epic war drama masterpiece around those historical facts bringing us some of the creepiest, most brutal and heart stabbing individual stories behind the numbers of casualties. Camera is simply flawless, climaxing the massive scenes and wide angles as well as the effervescent focus exchange. Screenplay is the world for itself, bringing some of the most striking characters into the genre of war drama, a short but mighty Chinese soldier Lu (Buster Keaton like Ye Liu), unbelievably potent Sino-civilians Mr. Tang (Wei Fan) and Mrs. Jiang (Yuanyuan Gao), as well as the immortal male lead, Japanese soldier Kadokawa (Hideo Nakaizumi). Performances will be extraordinary, as well as the timeless lines overflowing from every major scene and twist in the story. The patriotism will be omnipresent, but so discreet and reduced to a symbolic level that you won’t even sense it. There will even be a place for some seed of hope. Tiny one, but undoubted.

Forget about „Schindler's list”, „Pianist” or even the „Son of Saul”.  Chinese „Nanjing! Nanjing!” (original title) is the ultimate war movie, war drama and holocaust drama!

„City of life and death” is one of those movies that you will be able to watch only once, but also one the flicks that you’ll remember for life. I’ll guarantee that.

CITY OF LIFE AND DEATH - 10/10

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CONSISTENT AND PAINFUL ALL THE WAY

Dramatic fate of the Jews in Second world war torn Europe was a frequent subject in modern cinema with some real directing and writing giants involved in its depicting. The sub-genre was drenched during the years and little or no viable flicks were made in this century.

„Phoenix” is a low B/C German drama about a woman (Nina Hoss) that managed to survive the war disfigured and now searches for her husband who sold her out to the Nazis. The betrayal continues to the very end, as well as women's tragedy. Overall rhythm is pretty slow, but the emotions run high all the way, as the entire precisely written script.

„Phoenix” is a great European drama with a big „D” that will twist your heart inside out.

PHOENIX - 8/10

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JUST NOT THERE YET

FOTO: filmcenter.cz

Czech cinematography has had its peak back in the mid-20^th century, so every new flick coming from that country is constantly being compared to the ones of the „golden era”.

„Zelary” is a classic slow pace Second world war drama combining the elements of civil war and the fate of the Czech pictured through the main female character (played by Anna Geislerova) and her patron (György Cserhalmi) who falls for her charms.

The script is unwinding in a pretty obvious way and only occasional violence tends to break the smooth sailing of the entire story. The dash of Russian-made terror just adds to the overall feeling of safe ending.

„Zelary” is a solid slow pace war drama, but without the much needed amplitude.

ZELARY - 5/10

SLOW, BUT DECENT

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Polish laureate for this year’s best foreign-language movie in Kodak theater isn’t a bad movie. It is slow, but it isn’t a bad one. There were better ones (Georgian ”Tangerines” and Spanish ”Divlje priče”), but there were also some worse flicks (Russian ”Leviathan”).

”Ida” is Pawel Pawlikowski'artistic expression in black and white and retro 4:3 format that follows young nun on her journey through inner transformation and exploration of the past time tragedy in the family. There is almost no music throughout the movie and the dialogues are stark. Agneta Trzebukowska is doing fine as the leading role, while the other characters are only sketches in the somehow empty script.

To summarize, ”Ida” is a slow, decent and a bit overprized movie.

IDA – 4/10